Heather du Plessis-Allan Drive

Prime Minister Keir Starmer will welcome Germany’s chancellor, Friedrich Merz, to the UK to sign a new bilateral defence treaty. The treaty promises tighter action on smuggling gangs, expanded defence exports and closer industrial ties between both regions. UK correspondent Enda Brady says this treaty sends a clear message to Russia amid escalating global tensions. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Tonight on The Huddle, former Green MP Gareth Hughes and lawyer and political commentator Liam Hehir joined in on a discussion about the following issues of the day - and more! Oranga Tamariki won't publish the reoffending rates of future youth bootcamp participants. Shouldn't we know those rates to know whether the camps are working? Scientists have warned campylobacter is on the rise, and want warning labels on chicken. What do we make of this? With all the discussion on rates caps, do we also need to think about a cap for tax rise too? LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The US earnings season for the second quarter is under way - and one expert has revealed what this means for American households. Recent data shows households are staying resilient, and there's no sign of a recession as of yet. Sam Dickie from Fisher Funds explains further. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Despite the current geopolitical environment, product prices have strongly recovered from their lows of the past couple of seasons as demand returned from key export markets. Experts claim tighter global production has contributed to improved demand for meat products. The Country's Jamie Mackay explains further. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On the Heather du Plessis-Allan Drive Full Show Podcast for Thursday, 17 July 2025, shocker price hike. Food prices have gone up by 4.6 percent. Economist Brad Olsen says the cost of some food groups including mince makes for grim shopping. Scientists are warning of the huge rise of people getting hospitalised for campylobacter. But Food Safety's Vincent Arbuckle says the researchers are scaremongering and people are well aware of the dangers of raw chicken. Green MP Tamatha Paul makes her debut on Drive, saying Oranga Tamariki is refusing to publish reoffending rates for boot camp participants to hide its failure. Plus, with all the talk about rates caps - the Huddle debates whether we should also have a cap for tax rises. Get the Heather du Plessis-Allan Drive Full Show Podcast every weekday evening on iHeartRadio, or wherever you get your podcasts. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The hunt is on for New Zealand's next big new start-up. Icehouse Ventures recently opened a $30 million seed round in an attempt to fund 30 new Kiwi-made business ventures. CEO Robbie Paul says they're looking to invest in new technology that can go from New Zealand to the world. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

How many times have you heard the Prime Minister say this Government is different because it will set targets, track progress and be open about its actual results? That's how we're going to get back on track, that's what we've heard from National so many times. And what's more important than turning around education and getting on top of youth crime? Not much. Which is why they've got charter schools and bootcamps. Everybody said 'yep', those kids need sorting out in the case of bootcamps - or those kids deserve more choice in the case of charter schools. But now this week, we’ve heard from the agencies involved in these programmes and they've decided they won't be telling the public how many students are enrolled at the new charter schools. And in the bootcamps- they won’t talk about how many of the kids are re-offending. They’ve given various excuses for this, but none of them stack up. They reckon telling the public general details, no specifics or names, about youth re-offending is potentially harmful to vulnerable kids - which sounds very cotton-wool, wraparound luvvie Labour for the the big game this Government talked, don't you think? The fact is, people can’t trust a system or a programme they know nothing about. When you're not totally upfront about the results, it looks like you're trying to hide something. And you only hide news when it’s bad. So either they know charter schools and boot camps are a bad idea, which I doubt, otherwise why would you do them? Or -they’re scared of failure on key programmes a year out from the election. Here’s some free advice: give us the truth and let us make up our own minds. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The All Blacks selectors have rung 10 changes to the starting XV for Saturday's third and final test against France in Hamilton. Ethan de Groot, Fabian Holland, Patrick Tuipulotu, Ardie Savea and Rieko Ioane are the only players remaining from the last run-on side. Samisoni Taukei’aho, Tyrel Lomax, Samipeni Finau and Luke Jacobson come into the starting pack. The backline changes includes promotions for Cortez Ratima, Damian McKenzie, Quinn Tupaea, Anton Lienert-Brown, Sevu Reece and Ruben Love. All Blacks assistant coach Jason Holland says it's important to make changes - and he's expecting the squad to deliver a solid performance against the French. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The pressure's on Oranga Tamariki - as it announces it won't release more details around bootcamp reoffending. The Ministry for Children initially confirmed teens in the pilot military-style academy programme had offended again. It's since said releasing information could've been harmful to those involved. Green MP Tamatha Paul says the agency is shifting the goalposts. "That is one of the measures of success for the pilot, so I think it's really important that we do know." Paul claims Oranga Tamariki doesn't want to publish the data because the programme's been a failure. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Households are still finding it tough to pay for the basics, with high prices not easing yet.  Stats NZ has revealed the cost of food rose 4.6 percent in the 12 months to June. It's largely driven by double-digit increases for products like red meat, cheese and milk Infometrics principal economist Brad Olsen says the general economy is still experiencing intense price pressure and weakness - which isn't comforting. "Mince prices are now hitting nearly $22 a kilo. You can't even have a cheap mince meal at a cheap price." LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.